In the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s widely criticized Helsinki performance, Trump’s foes are not only speculating openly that Russian President Vladimir Putin must have compromising dirt on him, but are once again renewing the claim that Russia “stole” the election for Trump and turned him into a puppet of the Kremlin. But if these claims are true, what must that say about Barack Obama’s presidency?

Just think about that for a moment. A hostile foreign power was able to unilaterally install its choice for president to lead our country and our people. This has never happened before in our nation’s history. Yet it happened on Obama’s watch. And Obama, despite knowing of the Russian efforts, could not and did not stop it from happening, if you believe the narrative. This failure to protect our democracy is an astonishing dereliction of presidential duty, and a damning indictment of the quality and efficacy of Obama’s leadership. In fact, Russia’s success just might make Obama one of our greatest failures. One narrative creates the other. In their efforts to discredit the Trump presidency through the “stolen election” narrative, Trump’s enemies only serve to discredit Obama’s even more. Isn’t irony fascinating?

Michael J. DiStefano; Jamestown, R.I.

Jon Huntsman (Emmanuel Dunand, AFP/Getty Images)

US ambassador to Russia needs to quit

U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman, I urge you to resign your diplomatic post to Russia in protest of Monday’s disastrous meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

I don’t fault you for taking on the ambassadorship. If anything, I took solace in knowing such a pre-eminent figure would represent us in Moscow and serve as a watchman against a government that so clearly means us ill. And I give you credit for helping to organize the meeting in Helsinki because, at the time, it presented an opportunity to check Russian aggression.

From the president on down, public servants like yourself should put America first. But after Monday, it is no longer clear if Trump’s foreign policy primarily serves American interests and is not instead rooted in his Russia-backed financial interests, fundamentally un-American penchant for authoritarianism, fear of some unknown kompromat or a nauseating combination of all of the above. It is no longer clear if the president of the United States puts America first.

The president’s “clarifying” comments on Tuesday should only further our concern. His “double negative defense” was the most laughable attempt at presidential linguistic gymnastics since President Bill Clinton’s soliloquy on what the definition of “is” is. What’s more, the fact that he is even considering turning over former U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul for Russian interrogation is terrifying. If diplomats like yourself are not safe under this administration from the whims of foreign despots, then truly no American is safe.

Were you to resign, our nation could suffer should you be succeeded by a sycophant, incompetent, or both. But it would send a clear, timely message to both our allies and foes that moral and principled leadership still has a home in America — a message that perhaps even Trump cannot ignore.

Clifton Yin; Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16, 2018(Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Trump-Putin meeting brought me to tears

I’ve never shed tears over a political news conference until Monday. I could not believe that our own president was siding with a known totalitarian, Russian President Vladimir Putin, against his own country. President Donald Trump has cast aside our intelligence agencies to save himself and his narcissistic belief that there’s no way anyone helped him “win” the 2016 election.

Trump’s denials of collusion ring hollow, and remind me of many of my elementary school students that could not admit to wrongdoing and pointed the finger at others. This will certainly go down in history, but since Trump seemingly has no knowledge of history, he may never read about it.

Steven Brewer; Naples, N.Y.

Much has been made of Trump undoing President Barack Obama’s legacy through executive orders, but Trump embracing and excusing of Putin — in spite of overwhelming evidence of Russian aggression and election interference — threatens to undo President Ronald Reagan’s legacy against our Cold War adversary.

Buck Rutledge; Knoxville, Tenn.

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